caching and javascript popups

[Anon]

I've got this strange problem with a form I'm working on. It's a fairly lengthy form, and at one point, the user needs to open up a popup window to input information that gets returned to the form in a textarea. When the user finally submits the data, it is all checked to make sure that it's valid, otherwise it informs the user what is incorrect, and tells them to go back and change the specified problems.

What's odd is that whenever a popup window is opened up before submission, and the user goes back to the form after a failed submission, all the previously cached data is wiped out.

However, if the form is submitted without opening up the popup window, then the data is still there when the user tries to go back.

It seems like opening up the popup in the form throws off caching the page. Right now my session_cache_limiter is set to 'private, must-revalidate'. Any ideas on how to maintain the cached data?

[bastien]

what i like to do is to put all the forms i use in functions. then code to give the VALUE attribute the value of that field...

<input type=text name="FirstName" value="<? echo $firstname ?>"> then all values that are in the fields show whenever the form is called.

from here it merely becomes a function call to the form after having passed the values from the first submission.

hth

bastien

[Anon]

I agree, forms can be very repetitive and it's much better do design some good functions to output what you want based on a few variables.

However, I think my problem has more to do with how PHP caches pages. If I launch a popup from the form before submitting it, after submission you cannot go back and edit the form data, it's all gone. If you submit the form without launching any popups before submission, and then go back, all the data is still there. I'm wondering if there's any technique I can use to preserve the form data in the first case.

[bastien]

what about taking off the cache limiter header? Then caching should be enabled...

Bastien